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After two days in the hospital, I took a turn for the nurse. W C Fields
Hospitals are only an intermediate stage of civilization, never intended ... to take in the whole sick population. May we hope that the day will come ... when every poor sick person will have the opportunity of a share in a district sick-nurse at home. Florence Nightingale
No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this – ‘devoted and obedient’. This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman. Florence Nightingale
Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation as any painter’s or sculptor’s work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God’s spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts. Florence Nightingale
I use the word nursing for want of a better. It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices. It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet – all at the least expense of vital power to the patient. Florence Nightingale
Mary Seacole was West-Indian ... When Britain joined the Crimean War in 1854 she tried to volunteer her services at the front ... She was turned down by the likes of Nurse Nightingale ... Mary Seacole built her British hotel right on the front line ... Mortars would whizz past the big old woman trundling the front lines. After the war was over the soldiers feted her at a charity gala. She had become briefly an eminent Victorian. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: Forces of Nature, BBC 2000
In 1860 Elizabeth Garrett enrolled as a surgical nurse at Middlesex Hospital but her sights were set higher ... She was also cutting up body parts in her bedroom. This improvised education made her bold enough to take part in the hospital’s medical (not nursing) exam. And when the time came to publish the results, one E Garret had come top. Ordered to keep the outrage secret she went public instead. Nine years later the French gave her an MD. ibid.
In 1991 newly qualified nurse Beverley Allitt murdered four children at Grantham & District Hospital. In a case unheard of in the UK she purposely set about attacking those in her care. Crimes that Shook Britain s1e4: Beverley Allitt, CI 2008
In the space of seven weeks eight children have suspiciously collapsed on Ward IV ... Three more boys have suspiciously collapsed; all had been admitted with minor complaints. ibid.
After weeks of detective work they now have their culprit. ibid.
She is given thirteen life sentences and shows no emotion and no remorse. ibid.
Between 1970 and 2006, 45 health care professionals were found guilty of serial murders in Europe and America. Of these 86% were nurses. Crimes that Shook Britain s8e4: The Stepping Hill Murders, VI 2017
‘A murder mystery like no other.’ ibid.
The poisonings at Stepping Hill Hospital are crimes that shook Britain. ibid.
Over twenty patients in three wards were affected over a four-week period. ibid.
27-year-old Rebecca Leighton is a local woman working as a nurse … The Crown Prosecution Service announced that the case against her has been discontinued; despite this, Rebecca is suspended by Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and eventually sacked for stealing medication. ibid.
‘A 46-year-old male nurse has been arrested on suspicion of tampering with medical records.’ ibid. local news
‘He [Victorino Chua] called himself the Angel of Death.’ ibid. prosecutor
He’s jailed for Life with a minimum term of 35 years. ibid.
Beverley Allitt was a trusted children’s nurse; nobody knew that she stalked hospital wards with murder on her mind. Evil Up Close: Beverley Allitt: The Ward Assassin, 2012
Her attention-seeking behaviour is becoming more alarming ... Munchausen’s Syndrome. ibid.
As she grew older a menacing controlling nature emerged. ibid.
The judge passed thirteen life sentences. ibid.
In the previous four years they’d only been one or two deaths on that ward; we sadly had incidents – twenty-six incidents – in eight weeks where four people had died. Paul Jones, investigating rozzer
In 1991 a series of murders at a hospital in Lincolnshire would shock the world. No-one could believe that a nurse could kill four defenceless children and attempt to kill nine others. She would be known as the Angel of Death. But was Beverley Allitt born to kill? Born to Kill? The Angel of Death, Channel 5 2012
The young nurse Allitt was an angel ... and was always on hand to help with the tragic cases that Ward 4 was experiencing. However, when revealed, the truth behind the mysterious deaths would shock the world. ibid.
On 15th February 1993 the trial of the Crown versus Beverley Gail Allitt begins. ibid.
Boston, Massachusetts, VA Hospital 1995: An emergency in Ward C – one of their patients was having a heart attack ... Sixty-six-year-old Stanley Jagodowski was dead. Crime Stories: Lethal Injector
The number of deaths on Ward C had increased. ibid.
Kathy Rix decided to keep a close eye on the hospital’s supply of Epinephrine. ibid.
An alarming number of emergencies occurred when one particular nurse was on duty - she was twenty-eight-year-old Kristen Gilbert. ibid.
Kristen became physically abusive. ibid.
The victims they knew about may just be the tip of the iceberg. ibid.
Guilty on three counts of first-degree murder. ibid.
Kristen Gilbert was a bright, attractive, well-trained nurse who, in 2001 was found guilty of killing her patients at a Veterans Administration medical center in Northampton, Mass. What made this talented young woman turn to murder? Some believe it was for the thrill, other’s say it was so she could meet up with her boyfriend who also worked at the hospital ...
On February 15, an AIDS patient who was being treated with antibiotics suddenly passed out after Kristen had flushed his intravenous lines and the nurses on Ward C finally decided to report their suspicions. It did not take federal investigators long to figure out the common thread to many of the deaths occurring on Ward C, was Kristen Gilbert. In the seven years she worked at the VA Hospital, 350 deaths had occurred during her shift, statistically impossible to attribute to coincidence. About Crime online article
God, I love nurses. They’re so disgustingly clinical. Blackadder Goes Forth: Plan E - General Hospital, Blackadder to Nurse, BBC 1989
And always keep a-hold of Nurse
For fear of finding something worse. Hilaire Belloc, 1870-1953, English poet & novelist & Liberal politician
What a fuss about such a little thing. Carry on Nurse 1959 starring Kenneth Connor & Charles Hawtrey & Shirley Eaton & Hattie Jacques & Bill Owen & Joan Sims & Kenneth Williams & Leslie Phillips & Terence Longdon & Wilfrid Hyde White & Joan Hickson & Cyril Chamberlain & Jill Ireland & Irene Handl et al, director Gerald Thomas, nurse to patient
Nothing’s the matter with me, Jack. I’m all right. ibid. her to him
Stop mucking about. ibid. Kenneth Williams
How are your bowels? Carry on Matron 1972 starring Sid James & Kenneth Williams & Charles Hawtrey & Hattie Jacques & Joan Sims & Bernard Breslaw & Terry Scott & Kenneth Connor & Wendy Richard et al, director Gerald Thomas, Jacques to Williams
I’m a man like any man. ibid. Williams to Jacques
A bit of the old slap and tickle. Oh why not? After all it’s perfectly natural. You’re a man and I’m a woman. ibid. Williams to Jacques
I need to prove myself as a man ... There is a mutual attraction between us. You must have felt it. ibid.
I want to be wooed. ibid. Jacques to Williams
I’m only flesh and blood. I’m tingling like a beast. Aflame with passion. Burning with desire. ibid. Williams to Jacques
I am a woman. Not a Do it Yourself Kit. ibid. Jacques to Williams
Where is the filthy beast? [out of window] Ooh come back, you monster! Come back! ibid. Jacques to Williams